The Movement
The Movement was a nomad empire formed by breakaway factions of the Ostertraktionreich. Nikola Quercus was its Land Admiral. The Movement had a large empire which ran from the North to the Fuel Country. Their standard was a wheeled tower, white on a black field. It was one of the smaller empires but however successfully defended the fuel country till the Battle of the 3 Three Dry Ships because of their technological superiority and class of Technomancers. Early History The Movement was formed like many of the various other Nomad Empires, when the constant plagues and earth storms following the Sixty Minute War made it necessary for civilizations to remain mobile in order to survive. The Movement originally began in an Arctic Oak forest somewhere in the far North, during some brief period between ice ages when those lands were more fertile. They were driven out of their home by changing weather and encroaching enemy groups and adopted a nomadic lifestyle, first traveling on foot, then in wagons, and then eventually in large wheeled barges, land hoys, and traction castles. These vehicles were often too large to be powered by their engines alone, so the Movement used slave labor to assist them. Moving South & The Capture of London Sometime after the Scriven Uprising, Wavey Godshawk fled into the North and made contact with The Movement. She impressed them with her knowledge of Ancient technology, and soon became their Chief Technomancer. Remembering her father's dream to turn London into a mobile city, she eventually persuaded Nicola Quercus to capture London and seize Auric Godshawk's inventions, which were stored in a sealed vault beneath the ruins of his house. The Movement captured London with little trouble, breaching the city's defenses at the Orbital Moatway, and then setting up Quercus as the new Lord Mayor. In Godshawk's vault, Wavey uncovered a prototype engine that her father had been designing before his death, and used it as the foundation for the new Traction City. Construction Quercus and Wavey labored tirelessly to make London mobile. The empire's borders were expanded, and its holdings in the Fuel Country were heavily reinforced with armored landships and battalions of Stalkers. Quercus built new, modern roads to assist in the transport of raw materials, and developed contracts with various Southern merchant cities for labor and supplies. It was around this time that the Suppression Office was formed: a group of secret agents tasked with stamping out any fledgling technologies that might threaten the new city. This group carried out a far-reaching campaign to prevent the rediscovery of flight, and either killed or discredited many of the scientists experimenting with it. The Northern War As London neared completion, several other nomadic groups began to see the city as a threat to their own ways of life. A great Northern Alliance was formed, lead by empires such as the Archangelsk, the Soumi, and the Novaya Khazak. This Alliance made a bid to recapture the Fuel Country and destroy the traction city before it could be made ready to move. They were too late, however, and London itself took the field at the Battle of Three Dry Ships. Although the strength of the Alliance was broken in this battle, it is implied that the Northern War continued, in some form, for some time afterward. Eventual Fate While the Movement were successful in creating the first traction city, there is no mention of them as a separate entity at the time of Mortal Engines. Very likely, during the many centuries between the Fever Crumb series and the Mortal Engines Quartet, the Movement shed its nomadic identity and became absorbed into the population of London. Organization and Military Strength Little is known about the command hierarchy of the Movement, whether it was hereditary or based solely on merit. Quercus, as Land Admiral, was the highest ranking person in the empire at the time of the Fever Crumb series, but there were many generals below him, such as Rufus Raven, who commanded large armies of their own, and who appeared to operate with a great degree of autonomy. During the conquest of London, Wavey Godshawk tells Fever Crumb that, should Quercus be killed, someone else will be ready to take his place. The strength of the Movement came from its large and well trained army. Their years spent wandering the North left them with a vast quantity of functioning Old Tech weaponry, and Wavey Godshawk ensured that they understood their finds better than most of the other Nomad Empires. They used hundreds of reanimated Stalker warriors as shock troops, and their foot soldiers went into battle accompanied by squadrons of mobile forts, monowheels, and self-propelled gun emplacements. Quercus also built a navy to rid the surrounding seas of pirates, thereby freeing up trade routes for London. Society and Culture The glimpses of Movement culture seen in the Fever Crumb series indicate a strong Eastern influence. Quercus and Raven are said to dress modestly compared to other generals, who favor gaudy uniforms of their own design. At the dawn of the Traction Era the Movement appeared to be a patriarchal society, although Wavey, as Chief Technomancer, was the second most powerful person in the empire after Quercus. As a warrior culture, the Movement placed great importance on conquest, and feats of battlefield courage. Soldiers who fell valiantly were said to go to the High Halls. Their bodies were often resurrected as Stalkers. Unlike other, larger, empires like the Archangelsk, the Movement did not rely on reindeer and mammoth herds for their survival. They placed great emphasis on speed and mobility, and did not seem comfortable living on the bare earth. Vehicles * Landships * Monowheels * Traction Fortresses * Jotungard * Supercollider Category:Northern Nomads